International Homicide Statistics (IHS) - United Nations Office on ...

International Homicide Statistics (IHS)

METADATA and METHODOLOGICAL TEXT for Intentional homicide, rate per 100,000 population

Intentional homicide is defined as unlawful death purposefully inflicted on a person by another person

Scope, coverage and timeliness of the data

Scope

Data represent the number of homicides per 100,000 population as captured by different sources of national and international administrative statistics.

Coverage

Single homicide rate, or homicide rate `range' (presented as low and high estimates) derived from two different sources, for 198 countries or territories, presented by sixteen sub-regions (East Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, West and Central Africa, Caribbean, Central America, North America, South America, Central Asia and Transcaucasian Countries, East Asia, Near and Middle East/South West Asia, South Asia, East Europe, South East Europe, West and Central Europe, Oceania).

Timeliness

Data sources used most commonly correspond to the year 2004. Where data sources correspond to an alternative year (commonly 2005 or 2003) this is indicated in the source list.

Concepts and definitions

Concepts

The term `intentional homicide' captures a wide range of acts, including domestic disputes that end in a killing, interpersonal violence, violent conflicts over land resources, inter-gang violence over turf or control, and predatory violence and killing by armed groups. Whilst the term is broad, however, it does not capture all intentional killing. In particular, deaths arising from armed conflict are usually considered separately. The difference is often described by the organization of the killing. Individuals or small groups usually commit homicide, whereas the killing in armed conflict is usually committed by more or less cohesive groups of up to several hundred members.1

Despite the conceptual distinction, there is often little difference in intensity between large-scale criminal violence and low-level armed conflict, and the line between the two is often blurred. As a result, intentional homicide data should be interpreted with particular caution in countries affected by armed conflict. Recording of the number of homicides in such situations becomes complicated by two factors. Firstly, difficulties in applying the legal term of `homicide' to persons who take up arms and engage in a level of internal armed conflict. Secondly, it is unlikely that the police and justice case recording systems work properly in a situation of internal armed conflict, whilst health data may tend to capture both conflict and non-conflict deaths without distinction. As a result, levels of recorded homicide in situations of civil war or instability may appear either unusually high (where conflict related deaths are recorded as homicide) or, paradoxically, unusually low (where deaths cease to be classified and recorded).

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Definitions

Due to the fact that this dataset uses multiple sources ? both national and international, and criminal justice and public health based ? homicide is defined for the purposes of the dataset in its most basic sense as unlawful death purposefully inflicted on a person by another person. Certain data sources used may have applied a more specific definition (see table below). The definition adopted by this dataset nonetheless represents the most basic commonality between the different data sources.

A comparative analysis of homicide statistics must be conducted cautiously. Aside from the difficulties of identifying non-conflict related deaths, legal definitions of homicide vary among countries, and may or may not include crimes such as assault leading to death, euthanasia, infanticide, or assistance with suicide. The comparison of intentional homicide figures between countries and regions is, to some extent, a comparison not only of the level of intended killing of persons, but also of the extent to which countries and regions deem that a killing should be classified as such. In essence, societies define those killings that it perceives as acceptable and those that it does not.

Further, identical definitions cannot be applied by both criminal justice and medical or public health data sources. These systems measure slightly different phenomenon. Most importantly, the medical or public health system cannot determine the legal existence of an act of intentional homicide; merely the fact that a person has been killed by act of violence that appears to have been carried out intentionally.

Definitions applied by international and national data sources

Source

Definition applied

United Nations Ninth and Tenth Surveys of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems

Death deliberately inflicted on a person by another person, including infanticide

Statistical Office of the European Communities ? Crime and Criminal Justice statistics

Intentional killing of a person, including murder, manslaughter, euthanasia and infanticide. Causing death by dangerous driving is excluded, as are abortion and help with suicide. Attempted (uncompleted) homicide is also excluded. Unlike other offences, the counting unit is normally the victim.

International Criminal Police Organization ? international crime statistics

Murder

TransMONEE 2008 database

Homicide

World Health Organization. The global burden of disease: 2004 update

International Classification of Disease (ICD10) codes X85-Y09 (Assault ? includes homicides and injuries inflicted by another person with intent to injure or kill, by any means. Excludes injuries due to legal intervention or operations of war) and Y871 (Sequelae (late effects) of assault).

Pan American Health Organization. Health situation in the Americas. Basic Indicators 2008.

International Classification of Disease (ICD10) codes X85-Y09 (Assault ? includes homicides and injuries inflicted by another person with intent to injure or kill, by any means. Excludes injuries due to legal intervention or operations of war).

National data sources

Intentional homicide or murder as reported by national crime statistics.

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Sources and calculation and compilation practices

Sources

This dataset makes use of both national and international criminal justice and public health data sources. Each value cited represents a UNODC elaboration from the cited source (see methodological text on calculation below). The dataset gives priority to cross-national data sources on the basis of the international nature of the source and prior standardisation efforts already inherent in the data.

The dataset makes use of data from four cross-national criminal justice sources and two crossnational public health sources. In addition to international sources, a comprehensive search was undertaken for available national-level criminal justice data. This included searches of national police, law enforcement, prosecutor, ministry of justice and national statistical office websites. It also included a review of academic and open-source literature, in addition to personal communication with UNODC experts.

The source list consists of:

Source

Years used in IHS dataset

Notes

Cross-national criminal justice data sources:

United Nations Ninth and Tenth Surveys of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems

(UN-CTS)

2003-2005

The UN-CTS questionnaire is distributed to all Member States of the United Nations. Statistics reported to the UN-CTS represent incidents of victimization reported to the national authorities. Intentional homicide data sourced from the UN-CTS correspond to total police recorded offences at the national level for the relevant year.

Statistical Office of the European Communities ? Crime and Criminal Justice

statistics

2004

The Eurostat data collection is conducted in the European Union, EU candidate countries, European Free Trade Association countries, and selected other countries. Data are derived from official national sources such as the national statistical office or ministries of interior, justice or police. Intentional homicide data correspond to total police recorded offences at the national level for the relevant year.

International Criminal Police Organization ? international

crime statistics

2003-2004

Interpol international crime statistics are compiled from data supplied by Interpol member country National Central Bureaus staffed by national law enforcement officers2. Intentional homicide data correspond to total police recorded offences at the national level for the relevant year.

2 In September 2006, INTERPOL decided upon the discontinuation of cross-national crime statistics collection (Resolution AG-2006-RES-19).

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TransMONEE 2008 database

2004

Data in the UNICEF TransMONEE database is sourced from national statistical offices in the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS) countries. Intentional homicide data correspond to total police recorded offences at the national level for the relevant year.

Calculation

Cross-national public health data sources:

World Health Organization. The global burden of disease: 2004 update

2004

Data sourced from vital cause of death registration, WHO Global Burden of Disease cause-of-death models, Demographic and Health Surveys and regional patterns. Methodology available in: The global burden of disease: 2004 update. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2008.

Pan American Health Organization. Health situation in the Americas. Basic Indicators 2008

2003-2005

Data computed based on registered mortality data, applying a correction algorithm for mortality under-registration. Rates represent average mortality for three years. Methodology presented in Health Statistics from the Americas, 2006 Edition.

National criminal justice data sources:

Data sourced from 33 national statistical offices,

police commissariats, ministries of interior, justice

or public security

2002-2005

Data correspond to murder or intentional homicide total cases recorded by police or law enforcement authorities as reported directly by national police, national statistical offices, prosecutor generals, or Ministries of Justice, or indirectly in published reports.

Data sources used for production of the dataset most commonly provided information in counts (absolute numbers of homicides per year). Most usually, the counting unit for criminal justice data sources is cases reported to the police. The counting unit for public health data source is usually individual deaths by intentional violence.

Where data sources provided information in the form of a rate (per 100,000 population) data was converted to count form using, wherever possible, population data supplied by that source. Where no population data was available, conversion to count was carried out using population data for 2004 from the United Nations published in World Population Prospects: 2006 Revision.

In the case of data sourced from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a total homicide count was derived from PAHO male homicide rates and PAHO male:female rate ratios of homicide mortality using sex disaggregated population data from World Population Prospects.

Homicide rates per 100,000 population published in the dataset were all calculated from counts using population data for the year 2004 from World Population Prospects according to the formula rate = (count/population)*100,000. This method ensured application of a uniform set of global population data. Population data for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland was sourced from national statistical offices. As a result of the calculation process, rates presented in the dataset may not correspond exactly with those published in the cited source.

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Compilation

Whilst UNODC works predominantly with criminal justice data sources, the principle behind the dataset is to present as complete a picture as possible, with the widest geographic coverage, of the capture of the phenomenon of homicide by administrative statistics systems.

The selection of sources to be presented for each country or territory was carried out on the basis of both global and regional principles, according to both the availability of data and the quality of data.

Global principles applied to the selection and compilation of data were:

(i) With the exception of West and Central Europe and South East Europe sub-regions (see below), the presentation of a homicide rate derived from public health sources alongside a homicide rate derived from criminal justice sources in the form of a `range' for each country or territory;

(ii) Where two sources were unavailable, the presentation of a single available source;

(iii) Priority given to cross-national sources on the basis of the international nature of the source and prior standardisation efforts already inherent in the data;

(iv) Use of national criminal justice sources where cross-national criminal justice sources were unavailable;

(v) Selection of cross-national criminal justice sources according to a hierarchy of international sources (The UN-CTS was given priority as a cross-national source due to the degree of consistency of homicide definition applied by the UN-CTS questionnaire and its status as the primary crime statistics collection tool of the United Nations. Alternative international criminal justice sources used where UN-CTS data was not available varied by region and are described in the regional principles set out below); and

(vi) Checking of individual criminal justice source values prior to use for consistency with other available sources and consistency with historic trend data.

Application of these global principles ensured a consistent approach to construction of the dataset together with a degree of quality control. Criminal justice sources cited, for example, have been checked for consistency with other available published criminal justice data and for consistency with available trend data. Non-consistent data were excluded from the dataset and an alternative criminal justice source selected.

Regional principles applied to the selection and compilation of sources were:

Region Africa Americas

Europe

Regional Principles

Use of WHO data, where available, for public health source Priority given to UN-CTS data, followed by Interpol data, followed by

national data for criminal justice source

In order to benefit from regional expertise, use of Pan-American Health Organization data, where available, followed by WHO for public health source

Priority given to UN-CTS data, followed by Interpol data, followed by national data for criminal justice source

Due to relatively high level of data quality, highest value and lowest value from UN-CTS, Eurostat, TransMONEE and WHO data sources selected for countries/territories in West and Central Europe or South East Europe

For East Europe, use of WHO data for public health source, and UN-CTS, followed by Interpol data, followed by national data for criminal justice source

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